Regionalizing services a challenge for towns

Tuesday

Mar 19, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 19, 2013 at 11:02 PM

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It seems everyone wants to cut the cost of municipal government. But in New England, with its firmly rooted history of home rule and Yankee independence, collaborating to share services across community borders has often been a challenge.

Pamela Kocher, director of local policy at the state Executive Office of Administration and Finance, said, “Having to collaborate with another community whose football team they face on Thanksgiving Day can be an issue (for some municipalities).”

To help break down these barriers, the state has provided community challenge and other grants over the past two years to jump start money-saving and quality-improving regional initiatives.

A study recently released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's New England Public Policy Center found that Massachusetts cities and towns could save 25 percent to 60 annual operating costs by regionalizing three key service areas: emergency call handling and dispatch, public health services and public pension plan administration.

Yolanda Kodrzycki, author of the report and director of the New England Policy Center, said these three areas are strong candidates for regionalization because they are capital-, technology- and expertise-intensive services, and consolidation would reduce costs without compromising quality.

Mendon Police Chief Ernest Horn, whose town has hosted for three years regional public safety dispatch for Millville and, until the past fall, Hopedale, said: “The bottom line is it saves money but it absolutely requires compromise. If you're the town running it, everyone likes it because you don't have to make any compromises.”

While Hopedale didn't renew its contract — Hopedale Town Coordinator Eugene Phillips wouldn't comment on why — Mendon is making improvements to its dispatch center and Chief Horn said he hoped other towns would be brought in.

“I do think it's the wave of the future, though,” he said.

Douglas Police Chief Patrick T. Foley has spearheaded a two-year effort with Sutton, Uxbridge, Northbridge and Upton to explore regionalizing dispatch and emergency communications, which was funded by a state grant.

“Consolidation can work,” said Chief Foley, who came from Vermont, where he worked with coordination among 13 agencies between two states.

But he said start-up costs can be high and there are lots of administrative details to work out, such as where the dispatch center would be situated and how decisions get made.

The five Blackstone Valley towns considering regional dispatch contain five police departments, five fire departments and four local emergency service departments.

Some of the concerns are technical, such as how to consolidate five separate radio frequencies into one.

Consolidated communications would improve the ability to handle multiple calls at the same time, Chief Foley said, and would reduce the amount of communications equipment needed to be bought and maintained.

Another constraint is worry about “going dark,” he said. With one regional dispatch center, four surrounding communities would close their stations at certain times. The towns are grappling with the consequences of going without their own 24-7 window service and local lock-up monitoring.

“What happens at 2 a.m. if someone's been assaulted comes in? Are they going to pick up and call another town?” Chief Foley asked.

“On paper it looks good, but someone needs to read through the fine print.”

Chief Foley said the 100-page report prepared for the five towns by the Center for Governmental Research in Rochester, N.Y., is being vetted with all the town administrators, boards of selectmen, police chiefs and fire chiefs.

“There's a lot of variables,” he said. “We want to make sure all the questions have been answered.”

Sutton Police Chief Dennis J. Towle, who serves as vice president for the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, or CEMLEC, said that since 1995 the regional group of 61 communities has benefited member towns financially and in skills and services.

CEMLEC has a collision reconstruction team, SWAT unit, motorcycle unit and special response team. Member communities pay $500 a year and receive training and mutual resources to improve police officers' performance.

“I would probably have to pay triple that or quadruple that to pay for training for those officers,” Chief Towle said.

He said his officers also benefit from knowing other law enforcement personnel — and having their cellphone numbers — to call in a crunch.

“As professionals, you have to work together. If there's anything 9-11 taught us, there should be more collaboration among agencies.”

Sutton, with a population of around 9,000, started two years ago offering public health nursing services from its town nurse, Cheryl Rawinski, to other towns.

“It's really a huge asset to have a town nurse but it's also very expensive,” said Town Administrator James A. Smith.

Through intermunicipal agreements, Ms. Rawinski visits Webster, North Brookfield, Brookfield and Millbury to provide flu shots, tuberculosis testing and other health services, according to Mr. Smith.

Each of the towns pays Sutton an hourly rate that covers Ms. Rawinski's labor cost and brings a small amount of revenue to the town.

“It's really a kind of win-win situation,” Mr. Smith said.

While he said there were no real downsides, “It's really a question where it's getting to the point of her capacity.”

In northeast Worcester County, Nashoba Nursing Services and Hospice, under the auspices of Nashoba Associated Boards of Health, provides consolidated home care, hospice, public health, environmental health and dental services to 15 member towns.

Public pension systems have realized the benefits of economies of scale for decades, although a minority still operate independently.

Kevin P. Blanchette, chairman and CEO of the $425 million Worcester Regional Retirement System, which includes 95 member units such as municipalities and regional school districts, said: “The beauty of it is we're providing a complex benefit package — a defined benefit plan — and we have individual towns that aren't big enough (to manage that separately). Having a regional system takes the burden of administrative costs off the town.”

Member units contribute 3.5 percent of payroll, in addition to employees' contributions, and the retirement system's targeted average 30-year rate of return is currently 8 percent.

“I think the towns would tell you they get a good bang for their buck,” Mr. Blanchette said.

He said the size and diversification of the covered workforce also position the pension fund to fare better in the future, when many small towns have an aging workforce.

The biggest challenge of operating a regional system was dealing with the technological capabilities of each member unit. “Only a few have capacity to wire us,” Mr. Blanchette said. “We're getting paper checks from most of our towns.”

Shrewsbury Retirement System is one of the few local communities that manages its own pension, which it has done since 1941.

Director Gail Sokolowski said the five-member board, which is responsible for around 950 active, inactive and retired members and beneficiaries, hasn't had any issues with remaining independent.

Ms. Sokolowski said that since October, 100 percent of the money, an increase from 50 percent, is invested through the state's Pension Reserve Investment Trust fund.

“For a board our size, we get better asset allocation and lower administrative fees than we would with a money manager,” she said.

Ms. Kocher said 27 community incentive challenge grants were awarded in the first year of the program, reaching the $4 million that had been budgeted. One- hundred proposals totaling $20 million had been submitted.

The governor's fiscal 2014 budget proposal includes $7 million in grants to promote more regionalization.

Ms. Kocher said, “We feel like spending $7 million on this type of work goes a long way.”

Contact Susan Spencer at susan.spencer@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanSpencerTG.